Comments

Comment by TheOnyx

This might be obvious, but the shaman's Lightning Shield counts as nature damage as well, and will expend one of the two charges on the Stormstrike debuff if the target attacks you and takes damage from it.

Comment by chillyman

I personally think this skill kinda sucks... They should have replaced it with something more powerful like the one on the elemental tree. Should have been just instant effect and not over time.

Comment by cromar

This skill is devastating. Now that it's buffed to 10 second cooldown, very cheap on mana, and working with dual wield, it's amazing. On PTRs it was not proccing Windfury but according to beta testers that was a bug that has been fixed. I am not 100% sure if it is now proccing in live 2.0, I haven't tested it extensively yet. This fix went in quite awhile back though, before the parry buff, so I'd imagine it made it in.

Keep in mind that the debuff is not the primary purpose of SS. Some extra ES damage is handy but it's really not spectacular. The whole point is the huge burst and windfury proc potential. It was also very nice with old rockbiter for controlled burst, but that's ancient history now.

When DWing, both hits count as "one hit" for purposes of hit/miss calculations. In other words, you pop SS, and it gets dodged, you get no attacks. When it lands, it appears as two seperate hits. This is similar to Mutilate. However, they calculate crit independantly, which is helpful for crit procs like Flurry and Unleashed Rage (which is also awesome btw).

Comment by Mootow

Haven't been able to test Wf procs on it yet, but it will proc Flametongue on both hits.

Comment by Jadamsmhs

Due to the latest patch Stormstrike can no longer proc with windfury as it is yellow damage. other than that Stormstrike +earth shock is an amazing combination to deal huge burst damages every few seconds.

Comment by boo9ni

if yo have specked SS you certanly have used DW and WF all the time? well here is a secret, WF has a hidden CD, its about 1,5 sec but enough for you to get heavy delayed if you have weapons faster than 1,7-1,8. for max dmg with SS you should use WF on main-hand and rockbiter on off-hand. but dont tell the draeneis ok?

Comment by MattHock

Too late, we Draenei already know! (Except I'm using Flametongue offhand instead of Rockbiter at the moment, but still, point is no double WF).I do believe the cooldown is 3 seconds, however. You want to wield a main hand weapon that is above 1.5 seconds with Flurry on so that you can make sure that the proc is available every other hit (there aren't weapons slow enough to still be 3sec with Flurry, so yo have to time it for every other hit rather than every hit)

Comment by Steelmane

Anyone else noticed that it says 5 yard range here, but in game, not only is it not 5 yards, but it also changes from 6 yards when in combat, and 9 yards when not in combat (according to my tooltip). Also, even though it says 9 yards, it still stays out of range until you get right up to the enemy...

Comment by Alcaron

This is just something I've heard.... But can you put WF rank 5 on MH and rank 4 on OH, and then they get individual cooldowns? Or are they still shared?

Comment by Bakhoj

Posion effects allso get the +20% dmg but i whont take a count

Comment by Dopeypanther14

would a fel edged battleaxe and the offhand t2 gladiator wep work good with stormstrike?

Comment by yarai

Rogue poisons will benefit from the Stormstrike debuff but will not eat up charges. In attention, Thorns will also do 20% more damage while the debuff is active without using up charges.

The current incarnation of Stormstrike makes enhancement shamans a good partner for balance druids and elemental shamans. While it doesn't have the staying power of Curse of Elements, an extra 20% damage can be a lot when you take those two nuking classes into consideration.

Comment by frmorrison

Windfury weapon has a "hidden" 3 second cooldown that is not going to be removed. Therefore, slow weapons are best to use, especially in the off-hand.

In fact, say you had a 90 dps 1H dagger of 1.5 speed. Assuminig you went to the AH and got a 2.6 speed 65 dps off-hand. Your dps would go up (since the slower off-hand is less likely to eat the WF cooldown and more mana Shamanistic Rage).

DWers use WF5/WF5, and don't use anything different.

Comment by Doominator

I am DW enh shaman i always use 2 fast weapons

main 1.5 speed and WF5 then I get more chance to get WF proc every other swing if flurry comes in well it get even faster and other flameshock since it dont suffer off hand penalty its all about speed for DW enhanced shaman... low hits but many many many..

Ive tried many combinations and the one post WF5/WF4 combo is the one that showed the most damage per second on damage meter...

Blizz really hates shamans for taking away WF5/WF4 possibility

Comment by BoJlk

After Patch 2.1 all ranks of Windfury share the same cooldown.

So putting different ranks of WF won't do any good.

Comment by moslof

There are multiple factors as to why slower 1H weapons are the best choice for Dual Handing. The slower the weapon, the bigger the damage potential via Stormstrike as compared to a fast weapon with the same DPS numbers (due to the damage range being higher). Windfury behaves much the same way, yielding 2 extra hits when it procs. Further, Windfury has a "hidden" 3 sec cooldown, so weapons of either 1.5s or 3s minimize the possible downtime between Windfury procs. For example, if a 2.6s weapon procs Winfury, after 3s pass, the next swing is another 2.2s away. Turning the 3 sec "cooldown" (or proc limit) into a 5.2s effective cooldown.

Confused? I know I am. But that's how I understand it.

In practice, I have been swinging a pair of 2.6s 1Handers (cause thats all you can find) and running windfury on both. Overall, my mele DPS is up (including Stormstrike spamming and dual windfury buffs) compared to 2.6.s MH with WF and 1.7s OF with Flame or Rock. Remember, Blizz "fixed" the windfury proc limit to be 1 cooldown for both hands. But as it happens with both hands swinging offset from each other by 1.3s, I manage to keep my windfury proced roughly once every 4 secs.

Want to make it even more confusing? Consider that Flurry procs on every crit hit and brings a 2.6s weapons down to a 1.82s for 3 hits or 10s. Thats too much for me to figure in, but I wager its a key part to the "slower weapons = bigger DPS" conviction most enhancement Shaman hold on to.

Comment by ultramyst

Can you use this ability with a 2 Hand weapon?

Comment by moslof

Yes, you can use Stormstrike with a 2 hand weapon or with just one 1 hand weapon. It is not exclusive to dual wielding.

Comment by RevanAD

If poison damage is being dealt to the target you SS... would poison ticks eat SS charges? That'd be kinda lame.

Comment by bamninja

i am confused on what this does 1.) when it says attack with both weapons does it mean that only if your DWing 2.) what exactly is this things purpose3.) is it any kind of +dmg on use attack the way heroic strike is

Comment by 97036

The icon is getting changed in 2.4. They better not make it ugly!

Comment by Stormwaker

The icon has been changed to match that of the one in the PTR. In small talk, we recieved the "Mage" treatment for a balancing patch, we got a new icon. Though Healing Grace change will be sweet.

/endofrant

I'm sorries :)

Comment by Aredict

I'm undecided whether I like this new icon or not. Sure, having a different icon than Hammer of Justice is nice, but that hammer is so-so. Maybe some more lightning would make it better?

/aesthetic discussion

Comment by Serai

whats annoying is that thorns also counts as a nature dmg proc for this one

meaning that the tank got a wooping 7 more dmg in aggro at the cost of more than 200 of you

Comment by slapmutepop

I'm currently DWing Fist Weapons. These do not seem to activate the buff on Stormstrike. Anyone else found this?I'm only guessing but it could possibly be because Fist Weapons are an unarmed ability.

Comment by Tisse

Cool icon. No more thinking it's a stun. =)

Comment by nikker

I've heard that when you put WF on your offhand and WF totem for your MH it doesn't share cooldowns, so im wondering is this better than both WF and Agi totem? (Still best way for dungeons anyway. since other melee's need WF badly)

Comment by Theorem

Dual-wielding windfury always provides the best dps. Quoted from Elitestjerks.com, "When you are wielding a two handed weapon, or are using a shield, your chance to proc windfury on any landed attack outside the 3-second cooldown is 20%. When you dual wield weapons, the chance on each landed attack outside the 3-second cooldown is approximatedly 36%, if and only if both weapons are imbued with Windfury. (Original findings were posted on the WoW forums by Disquette, the thread has been removed from the official archives)

Comment by NightmareMJ

Stormstrike increases the damage from all sources of nature damage including poisons(dot poisons are best as they will not consume a charge)as well as the Envenom ability of rogues, this is a great spell and a must for raiding to have an enhancement shaman in the raid if you have rogues present.

Comment by Sihd

I don't know where else to put this question, But in PvP (I'm enhancement) I dont really know what's best for pwning: 2H weps or 2x1H weps?

Comment by Sihd

For pvp (player versus player) you can use this ability in two ways. I have 2x1H weps and a 2H wep. This is great because:1: I can nearly 1hit cloth users (mages,priests and warlocks) only by using a stormstrike while weilding my 2H weapon. you just have to be a little lucky, and have a descent crit %. If your WF procs with your stormstrike, or the melee attack that follows, AND one of the two WF's crit, you have done about 550-750 dmg on your stormstrike, 550-750 dmg on your next melee attack, around 900-1200 dmg on your NON-crit WF and 1400-1900 dmg with you WF crit (I use Stormherald with executioner, so maby I do a little more/less damage than any of you shamans that reads this). This will do about 4020 damage, just in 1 click. if you then use your Earth Shock ability, that will do around 950-1050 (for well geared pvp shamans, that is (ofc.) enhancement with the Mental Quickness talent 3/3), and if you're lucky will crit about 1500-1750 damage.This will then do (around):650 damage for Stormstrike650 damage for you following melee strike1050 damage for you NON-crit WF1650 damage with your Crit WFthis will do 4k dmg, and then with your earth shock1k damage with non crit1625 damage with critThis will do 5k with non-crit ES and 5625 with crit ES.

this will maby not kill your target, but you've done atleast 50% of his/her totalt hp in 2 clicks and 1.5 sec. thats a lot! :-)

Comment by zothar

Couple of questions (hopefully not redundant):

1. When using Stormstrike you want to punch it directly after your normal attack hits is that right? This will ensure that Stromstrike is hitting during the delay between your swings.

I am also curious if Blizz has your normal weapon speed on a separate timer from Stormstrike - in other words when Stormstrike hits it won't restart the weapon swing delay on your normal attack? To put this into a real-world example, if you have a 2h 3.00 speed weapon and you swing, then hit Stormstrike, your Stormstrike hits and then you are only waiting ~2 seconds until your normal hit swings again?

2. Is it best to use slower weapons as slower weapons tend to have a higher max dmg and with the hidden Windfury cooldown fast weapons would be hitting within the cooldown period and wouldn't count towards the proc rate of Windfury?

Now that said, if you have two very quick weapons (1.6 speed) could you expect that even though a couple of hits might get eaten in the hidden Windfury cooldown you are still hitting more frequently and are thus going to proc Windfury more often?

So confusing! I'm just going to hope to achieve what Sihd wrote above and knock some clothies out of the park...

Comment by CaptainDingo

Zothar, to answer your first question, in my opinion the most opportune time to use Stormstrike is the second it has finished cooling down. :P

Though certainly if you're attempting to do a burst of damage at once for some reason, you could wait until you've attacked before using it. But otherwise, you want to be hitting Stormstrike every single time it's not cooling down.

Comment by Buttspawn

LOL@People that don't know how to play. You NEVER use Stormstrike when the Windfury cooldown is present. Stormstrike is your way of "forcing" a Windfury proc, although it is by no means guaranteed to proc off of it. Stormstrike only makes up around 10% of your overall damage, and that's pushing it, IMO.

Most all of your damage comes from Windfury and normal attacks. A mod that helps out alot is called WF3Sec. It displays a timer bar showing the cooldown on Windfury (Quite simple, really: It displays a 3-sec bar when you proc Windfury). Whenever that bar is not up, that's when you use Stormstrike. It doesn't matter about your white attacks' status: Stormstrike doesn't reset your swing timer, so use it ANYTIME that Windfury's CD is not present.

Comment by Buttspawn

Thanks Dingo...you are most correct to hit this every time the cooldown is up. I've been testing this with my dual-wielding lvl 42 shammy and have found the results to be amazing!

Stormstrike does proc flurry, windfury, and shamanistic focus and I am tearing through lvl 40 clothies like a hot knife through butter. Half the time they're dead before I can even hit Earth Shock after my Stormstrike procs. Amazing.

That is "half" correct. You do want to use Stormstrike as often as possible, but ONLY if Windfury is not currently on cooldown. You can effectively "force" a Windfury since Stormstrike triggers it, so you can double your chances to proc a Windfury. You want a mod like WF3Sec that shows the Windfury cooldown, and then you can effectively time your Stormstrikes.

Now, hopefully noobs let this info stay up instead of purging it. -.-

Comment by Aljo

What did this ability use to do before the change?

(I know it costed 30% base mana, but can't remember the effect).

Comment by Nichoo

I play moonkin, and when in raids or just groups, this ability really boosts up my wrath, Cheers!

Comment by Aljo

@ Aljo

''Prior to patch 1.11, Stormstrike cost 30% of base mana and only reset the swing timer, so that it was only useful as an opener or just after a regular swing. It now acts as described, causing an instant, extra attack.''

Quoted from WoWWiki :)

Thank you :-)

(I knew i have seen it somewhere before, but couldn't remember if it was actually wowwiki)

Comment by Terraform

Does anyone know if the debuff left on the mob/player from using Stormstrike still stacks with other players Stormstrike debuff, making a higher damage amplifier?

Comment by dimitrisgr

I think it stacked pre-tbc and thats why they all called ss so overpowered, but not anymore :(

Comment by xeren

I'm wondering if it might be more effective to Stormstrike not when you want to force a WF proc, but when you want to force a crit for all the on-crit effects (Flurry, Focus, Unleashed Rage) when they're not currently active.

I've found that, a lot of the times when i wait the 3 seconds after a WF proc to Stormstrike, WF procs just as I'm hitting the key to SS, so i effectively waste the "forced" WF proc by being inside the WF proc CD. Contrast this with SS'ing for crits- If you crit just as you're hitting SS, the worst that can happen is that you SS makes you crit again and the timers on your on-crit effects are reset.

I guess it comes down to how likely you are to crit vs how likely you are to proc WF (36% outside the 3 sec CD), and then weighing the benefits from each.

I don't know, maybe i'm looking at this all wrong- this is too complicated to theory craft for me, can anyone help out?

Comment by Zzirok

The 20% plus to the next 2 sources of nature damage spells can be dispelled

Stormstrike - New animation, also now increases all Fire, Frost and Nature damage done by the Shaman instead of just Nature.

Absolutly cant wait for Wrath now! This is one of the new reasons why iv ended up deciding to stay enhance instead of elemental for Thunderstorm.

Comment by Weimann

Stormstrike - New animation, also now increases all Fire, Frost and Nature damage done by the Shaman instead of just Nature.

Note the highlight.

This worries me. As a raid debuff, this would make Stormstrike shine since the classes using fire, frost or nature spell damage are abundant. However, if it is changed to only affecting spells cast by the shaman...

Comment by Tchaman

It bothers me even more if the charges are wasted by Flame Shock's ticks...

Comment by Noobinater

flame shock ticks will not use up da debuff, da debuff is only used wen a direct spell hits it like lighting sheild or searing totem( not magma or fire nova as those r AoE not direct ).

but can someone tell me if our ele. fire totem will use it up wen he attacks someone?

Comment by Weimann

Stormstrike has recently been changed to again only affecting Nature school spells. However, the self-only requirement has not been lifted.

Comment by Ironangus

Now uses the same animation as 'mutilate.'

EDIT: Same for Taurens, I'd imagine it's like this for all races then.

Comment by Krakendorph

fixed now as of patch 3.0.3

Comment by Grimtongue

This is correct and it looks weird to see your character "stabbing" a pair of maces into someone...

Comment by Abomb

blizz ought to give this spell a double hit if your using a 2-hander, like this crusader strike, that would make shaman pvp very interesting

Comment by bickboucher

is affected by avoidance?gives chance to proc the weapon enchantments? 100% or normal %?

Comment by Pirwzy

Do you have to be dual-wielding to use this? I only ask because the description says "attacks with both weapons".

Comment by Rengoku

Please correct me if I am wrong, but since it strikes with both weapons, it just does weapon damage, am I correct?

Comment by penguinraper

I was wondering if this macro would work. I am trying to have a macro for when ever i use Stormstrike it will go to my 2H then switch back to duel wielding.

Comment by camarouge

Haven't even accounted for other stuff like maelstrom. Lots of neat procs going on, though, that's for sure.

Comment by Direfen92

Stormstrike, along with the rest of the Shamans arsenal of lightning based spells (Earth Shock included) all appear to have brand new electricity sound effects with the introduction of 4.0.1

It's a minor detail, but still cool nonetheless.

Comment by Chmmr

It needs to be clarified that since 4.0, this changed to increase critical strike chance for ONLY the following effects for 15 seconds, by 25% (35% glyphed) :- lightning bolt- chain lightning- lightning shield (need to confirm static shock proc)- earth shock

Comment by TDE156

Both Lava Lash and Stormstrike are both getting new animations in 4.0.6.

Comment by Pope

Will be buffed in 4.2. (if it goes live *cough*).

From 125% weapon damage to 225%.Or, with focused strikes, from 181% to 326%.Or, with focused strikes and the T11 2piece-bonus, from 193% to 348%

Comment by Zandol

This ability also got a slightly different animation after the 4.2 patch, not that this is a very important thing. Feel free to downrate.

Comment by jtunis

This ability also got a slightly different animation after the 4.2 patch, not that this is a very important thing. Feel free to downrate.

Don't be so shameful!

Information such as that is interesting to note and relevant to the ability. It is absolutely warranted to include notations like that.

If I may add some information regarding 4.2: Some may find it intriguing that male Dwarves got a uniquelynew animation assigned to this ability alone. I haven't seen it used anywhere else. Upon using Stormstrike, male Dwarf characters jumps into the air and crash down violently with both weapons.

I can't say if other races also received new and unique animations, but for male Dwarves, this is so.

Comment by WookieWalker

I read all over the comments, and since the ability tooltip doesn't include any charges, I'm inclined to believe that the 25% crit buff can be always maintained. If this is incorrect, please downrate, but reply with the correct answer. Thanks!

Comment by Zentro

As of 2/14/2012, There appears to be two images of lightning bolts that appear behind the weapons' swing. I will be submitting a screenshot. Give me some credit here, this screenshot took a few minutes to get, the lightning is only there for a moment.

Comment by ChickNourish

I'm a little confused. This is 375% weapon damage with BOTH weapons, not just MH right?

I haven't had a chance to test, but putting in some numbers for my twink (before AP/PvP Power/Resi reduction etc):

EDIT: I think it simply works out to be 375% MH damage :(.EDIT#2: Oops, that's for Stormstrike, apparently Stormstrike Offhand attack is there as well, which is why I kept seeing 2 numbers. And the OH appears to be receiving the -50% penalty.

I'm very confused... But either way, nice to know that with my 71 twink, with a NBA I'm hitting harder on SS and LL than a pally with Avenger's or anyone with any 2h since the coefficients are miserable on 2hs. And apparently the formula for this DOES receive the OH penalty since it's an OH based attack, making it:

250% of 1k + 100% (SF) + 40% (FT)2500 x 2 x 1.4 = 3500

Am I correct in all of this? :POn another note, for anyone wondering: SS is physical, LL is fire damage.

Thanks in advance, Keep Rolling Thunder!

Comment by xXzCodProxXz

This ability, along with windfury used to hit ALOT back in the day;a well-geared shaman could literally kill people before they pulled their first heal off

BUT. 95% of Shaman damage came from Nature damage. If one heavily stacked enough nature resistances, you were nearly immune to the damage, aside from his physical auto attacks. I called my nature resists set "the shaman destroyer". Keep in mind this put you in a disadvantage against other classes so if say a geared BM hunter caught you,you were a toast. You also couldn't just equipment sets in combat so what you would have to do is dismiss pet/ feint death (or pop an invisibility potion to drop threat), equip set, reengage the opponent. It surely was cheap, but effective. I am canceling out 95% of incoming damage, and there is nothing you can do about it

The nature resistance gear also hindered your dps, but by not much as a lot of it usually had a high amount of agility

Nowdays this tactic would be outdated and worthless , as the amount of resistance needed to reach around 80% reduction at level 90 would be close to low 600. Probably doable, but seeing what blizz added these double-element spells(e.g frostfire bolt ,mind spike, etc) you would still be vulnerable to his magic schools. ANd the fact what you can just dual spec for so cheap defeats the purpose even more. RIP almighty resists and hoorah to the people who understood how the mechanic worked

Comment by feyne

Its says its mana cost is 1% but why i lost about 15% of my mana to do it. Im going oom in long fights becouse i use this.

Comment by rodalpho

PvP multipliers are not in the tooltip or minable in the spell data.

From the October 14th 2016 hotfix notes:

Stormstrike’s damage is reduced by 15% in PvP.

Heroism and Bloodlust now have a 60 second cooldown when modified by Shamanism (was 45 seconds).

Developers’ Notes: The Enhancement Shaman is intended to be a formidable damage dealer who also provides offensive group utility through totems and buffs. Shamanism has been a popular choice for the Enhancement Shaman, allowing them to use Bloodlust/Heroism frequently and also in Arena combat. We like the utility this gives the Shaman, but feel its uptime is too high. Further, we feel the Enhancement Shaman’s burst damage with Stormstrike has been reaching unintended levels.

Comment by DKong27

Thought process I had once thinking about this ability:

"Stormstrike deals physical damage, but sounds like it should be lightning based. At least a dual Nature/Physical.Nature is called Storm and Physical is called Strike, so I guess it would be... Stormstrike damage... Huh."